2020 Festival Coverage

Lockdown might have put a stop to Cardiff Animation Festival’s physical 2020 edition, but it hasn’t stopped the Cardiff Animation Festival team. Since restrictions on gathering were introduced, Cardiff Animation Festival have sprung into action, taking events to online platforms like YouTube Live, Slack and Zoom to keep audiences and animators connected during social distancing. Now Cardiff Animation Festival have four new online events to bring animation fans from around the world together – an online masterclass with Cartoon Saloon Animation Director Lorraine Lordan, an online workshop with Welsh animator Kyle Legall, and curated online screenings of some of the best independent animation from around the world for families and adult audiences.

Cardiff Animation Nights, the CAF team’s free bi-monthly independent animation screenings, takes to YouTube Live for a second time on Thursday 30th of April at 8:15pm, with 12 brilliant new animated short films. The team took Cardiff Animation Nights online for the first time earlier this month, reaching nearly three times their usual audience numbers – over 500 people from around the world tuned in to watch independent animated short films together apart.

On Saturday morning, young animation fans can swap the usual cartoons for an hour of family-friendly independent animation. Cardiff Animation Kids will stream live on Saturday 2nd of May at 10:30am, including the world premiere of stop-motion animated short film Sum of its Parts directed by Alisa Stern.

On Saturday 2nd of May at 4pm, Animation Director Lorraine Lordan joins Cardiff Animation Festival live online from Ireland for a masterclass sharing insight from her varied and international career in animation, presented in collaboration with ScreenSkills. For much of her career Lorraine has worked at renowned Irish studio Cartoon Saloon, including as Animation Supervisor on the Annie-nominated TV Series Puffin Rock, Sequence Animation Supervisor on Oscar-nominated The Breadwinner and Assistant Director on the new Puffin Rock feature film; her work in animation has taken her around the world, to studios in the Czech Republic, Germany, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Cambodia and the UK. Lorraine talks life in lockdown, how she’s been able to balance making a short film with lead roles on features, and shares what she's learned along her impressive career journey.

Aspiring animators and those looking to brush up on their skills can join an online character design workshop with Welsh animator and multi-disciplinary artist Kyle Legall on Tuesday 5th of May at 6pm, presented in collaboration with Cinema Golau. Kyle began his career making animated films about black history and his community in Butetown, Cardiff, writing, directing, designing and animating short films for Channel 4 and S4C. Having since worked extensively across numerous different art forms, including spoken word, live music, performance art, graffiti and clothing design, Kyle is now bringing his eclectic skills back to animation. Emerging and aspiring animators can draw along with Kyle as he shares tips on evoking emotion through character design.

Cardiff Animation Festival is funded by Arts Council Wales, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Film Hub Wales as part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), BFI NETWORK Wales, and Ymddiried through the Owen Edwards Scholarship Fund, and sponsored by Cloth Cat Animation, Picl Animation, Creative Europe Desk UK – Wales, the University of South Wales, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Jammy Custard Animation, the British Animation Awards, S4C and by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund with contributions from UK animation productions.

Audiences will get a chance to step into the many worlds of His Dark Materials, and learn how the show’s many creatures were animated. Produced in Cardiff, the hit television show produced by Bad Wolf and New Line Productions for BBC One and HBO, based on the novels by Philip Pullman and starring Lin Manuel Miranda launched to 7.2 million viewers in November, making it the most-watched new British show on any channel in five years. Brian Fisher and Eliot Gibbins, the show’s heads of Creature Effects, will take Cardiff Animation Festival audiences behind the scenes, showing how traditional puppetry, cutting-edge VFX and a sprinkling of Dust combined to bring daemons and armoured bears to life.

Cardiff Animation Festival’s 2020 theme is “green”, and as part of an exploration into how to make the festival more green, this year’s programme will feature a virtual guest. Welsh animator Simon Chong will join the festival via video link from LA, where he now lives and works as a Director on Fox’s Bob’s Burgers after his fan-made Bob’s Burgers and Archer crossover animation got him noticed by show creator Loren Bouchard and landed him a job on one of the most-loved animated series on television around the world. Simon will give an insight into his unconventional career, and what it’s really like to work on your favourite show.

On Sunday 5th April, festival-goers will be invited to step into the magical Moominvalley, with a rare chance to see episodes of the animated show starring Matt Berry and Rosamund Pike on the big screen. A Q&A with Episode Director Avgousta Zoureldi will give audiences of all ages a chance to learn more about the making of Gutsy Animations’ beautiful TV adaptation of writer-illustrator Tove Jansson’s classic stories about the Moomins.Ed Foster, creator of Illuminated Films’ hit animated CITV comedy The Rubbish World of Dave Spud, will tell the story of his 16 year journey from student film to directing his own series, and the origins of underdog, unlikely hero and unwitting creator of chaos Dave Spud and his family. With a voice cast featuring Gina Yashere and Johnny Vegas, and animation by Cardiff’s Cloth Cat Animation, the show’s ratings have been far from rubbish since its launch in September.

Animation art director and illustrator Tanya J Scott will chair a discussion on inclusion in the animation industry, with a panel of animation and VFX creatives discussing how we work towards a fairer and more diverse workplace.

Events in partnership with ScreenSkills will give new and emerging talent a chance to network and learn from established professionals across the animation industry. Young audiences will get to meet and learn from animators and sound designers with a schools programme in partnership with Into Film. Cardiff’s long-running Iris Prize LGBT+ Film Festival will bring a selection of some of their favourite Iris Prize-nominated animated shorts to Cardiff Animation Festival.

The festival will screen its selection of 118 animated short films in competition across seven themed programmes for adult audiences and two for children. Themed programmes will focus on mental health, neurodiversity, our relationship with our environment, and will feature animated comedy, documentaries and experimental animation, including many of this year’s Oscar- and BAFTA-nominees. Maryam Mohajer, winner of this year’s Animated Short BAFTA with her film Grandad Was A Romantic, which is also screening in competition, will share insight into her work with a talk hosted in collaboration with Creative Mornings Cardiff on Friday 2nd April.

Rounding off a day of short films, education, careers and industry events on Thursday 2nd April, the festival will celebrate its launch with Cardiff Animation Nights. Run by the CAF team since 2014, Cardiff Animation Nights brings some of the best animated short films from around the world to Kongs in Cardiff City Centre for free every two months. This month’s Cardiff Animation Nights event saw record audience numbers, with 230 people coming together to enjoy independent animated short films.

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Zippy Frames is an animation news online magazine for European and independent animation worldwide since 2011. We publish news and reviews, cover animation festivals, host short films, and update on pitching calls and academic news.
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